Keeping it dry, clean: Florence native opens up new dry cleaning store

By Dwight Dana
Morning News reporter
Published: July 13, 2008

Larry Younginer is a people person who just can’t get enough of cleaning clothes — the dirtier the better.

It goes back a long way for the 63-year-old Florence native, who has just opened Cashua Cleaners at 327 S. Cashua Drive. He started working part-time at Johnson Cleaners while he was kick-starting his acute mind at McClenaghan High School.

And a cleaning career was enhanced even more when he determined that cutting grass and delivering the Morning News wasn’t the path to progress.

Younginer readily admits he’s made few mistakes in his life because he’s followed the straight and narrow. He even was a preparatory member of St. Paul United Methodist Church, which celebrates its 60th anniversary today. A preparatory member is one who wasn’t old enough to join the church at the time.

And one of his twin daughters, Melissa, was married Saturday at St. Paul. She got hitched the same week he opened Cashua Cleaners.

Younginer said it’s been a hectic week. Opening a new business the week his daughter goes to the altar is just another challenge for the entrepreneur. He’s used to challenges.

Take the time he was attending Wingate Junior College (now Wingate University) from 1963 to 1965. The students had an assigned chapel seat so they could hear a Baptist preacher every Wednesday morning. Younginer got somebody to sit in his seat one time so he could tend to important business: sleeping a little later.

But the Wingate administrators took chapel attendance seriously. After all, there were many Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians and other back-sliders attending the college who needed to hear and heed the weekly Baptist messages.

Younginer didn’t get away with his bamboozlement because the roll-taker knew he should have been sitting in that seat. And the roll-taker knew because he was allegedly tipped off by one of his fellow Florentines attending Wingate. Among those who steadfastly have pleaded their innocence through the years are Sidney Smith, Jack Campbell, Toby Ward, Gil Cloer and Ethan Mozingo.

Meanwhile, Younginer said he’s pleased with his first week. He’s even seen some former customers from K&M Cleaners (named after his daughters Katie and Melissa), which he opened on Second Loop Road in 1992 and sold in 2004. K&M was known for its personal service — a hallmark of Younginer’s expertise.

“A guy asked me if I wanted to sell, and I ended up selling to him,” he said. “I had worked five-and-a-half days a week for 12 years and was kind of burned out. But it was a mistake because a month later, I wanted it back. I also had some good people who worked for me.”

Younginer’s wife of 30 years, Jayne Mims, is a daughter of the late, legendary Slim Mims, also known as “Uncle Ugly.” She is a beautician and has her beauty parlor next to Cashua Cleaners.

She cut Younginer’s hair for the first time in 1975. He hasn’t gotten over it yet.

“She took me back to that shampoo bowl in the back and the minute I looked into her eyes, it was all over,” he crowed. “Them eyes, I said, ‘Oh my God, this is it, I think this is the one.’ I couldn’t take it. They say when it hits, it hits. I called her for a date, and it was just like I had butterflies in my stomach.”

Cashua Dry Cleaners is open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. until noon Saturdays, until the University of South Carolina football season begins.

“I’ll have to make an adjustment on football Saturdays,” Younginer said. “I’ve been buying season tickets for 35 years, and this is going to be the year.”